


The Moth's Regret

by ZxshadowxZ



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Low Key Gabe redemption, M/M, Mentioned MarcNath, Nathalie fucking with everyone, how the fuck do you tag?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:33:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26679778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZxshadowxZ/pseuds/ZxshadowxZ
Relationships: Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Jagged Stone, Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22





	The Moth's Regret

Before Gabriel Agreste was the three-time British designer of the year, he was simply a teenager living in a small apartment in London with his mother, Aileen Agreste was a devil of a woman, who had crawled through the worst that life had to offer, turned around, and spat in its face with a mocking grin, asking if that was “ _all it had?_ ”

He was 6 he found himself fascinated by his grandfather’s old designer suit, fingers scraping over the countless pieces of thread holding the wool garment together, he was 12 when he said he wanted to make clothes when he was older, and 13 when his mother broke another woman’s nose for saying his path was wrong.

At 14 he finally met a force of absolute chaos that would change his life forever, Johnathan Stone, would-be rock guitarist and personal annoyance, a man who managed to blindly stumble into Gabriel’s life... _literally_

What followed was the most stressful time of the would-be fashion designers life, every week a new idea from the musician 

However, Gabriel owes him more then he would ever admit, having been dragged to the old “Church of the Moth” building, a cult that had made some headway roughly a month prior before the police found them all starved, why Jonathan wanted to explore the deserted building, probably as inspiration for some song the blond would never listen too.

But it was here he found it _-him-_ the god that had been unknowingly worshipped by that cult, one of the so-called “Kwami” with the power of transition, Nooroo.

When Gabriel moved to France to study fashion, the man thought he would be rid of the musician forever, however, fate has never been on his side.

* * *

“Heyy! How ya been Gabe?”

‘Typical, of _course,_ he was the appointment, I’m not lucky enough to have a peaceful day…’

“Jonathan-”

“Jagged, and are ya always putting on that accent-”

“ _Jonathan,_ what can I help you with? I _hope_ you have a reason for setting this up?”

With that damn grin on his face, the guitarist leaned against the wall of the office, the tired look on his “friends” face fueling the man’s craving for chaos.

“So I was visiting my niece you see?”

“You don’t have siblings?”

With a quick shake of his head, the man answered him “Not _related_ , neat kid tho, and you see-”

With a baffled look on his face, the fashion designer cut the other man off.

“Wait you just adopted a random girl? How the hell did you- _actually you know what?_ I don’t want to know.” 

“Oi, let me finish?”

With a bored look, the blond crossed his arms, letting the musician finish his story. 

“ _So_ while she was showin’ me an absolutely _rock and roll_ jacket for my next gig, and she mentioned that boy of yours, and how an old mate of mine spent the last year locked up in his big ass house.”

With a sigh the blond man raised his hand to his head, lightly massaging the skin, a desperate attempt to be rid of this annoying headache. 

“Jonathan...I _appreciate_ your concern but I am fine, I do leave my house.”

“do ya tho? When did you last have a life?”

Gabriel Agreste, who had spent the last year terrorising the city of light with magical emotion parasites in order to rob two teenagers of their jewellery to switch places with his dead wife believing that it would fix all the problems in his life, responded to the other man the only way he possibly could-

“Of course I have a _life._ ” 

-by lying to his face.

With an exaggerated sigh, the musician pushed off the wall, stepping towards the designer’s desk, both hands pressing down onto the half-drawn designs scattered across the surface as the musician leans over, looking down at the unimpressed blond.

“Ya full of shit, but don’t ya worry, your best friend-”

“Nathalie.”

“ _Your best friend_ is going to help ya.”

With a small glare in his grey eyes, he finally met the gaze of the other artist, slowly tapping his fingers on the glass desk in a seemingly random pattern as he restrains his annoyance, an all to familiar chill down his side at Jonathan’s idea of “help.”

“So, I was thinkin' you come with me to my next gig, we can hang after it’s done, like old times!”

“And if I’m busy this Friday?”

With a grin on his face, the man put his scheme into action, “while I’m flattered ya know when my gig is if ya can manage to find someone else to spend the day with, I still win”

With a cough and a clench of his fist, the moth holder forced a smile to his face as he answered the man.

“Well I probably will, I have a life to live after all.”

“So its a bet then!”

‘Wait what did I just do-”

Stepping back, his arms both spread to the side, the guitarist with an ecstatic look on his face announced his plot, “if you can’t find anyone to spend this Friday with ya, you have to come to my gig and hang with me for the day, and if you can pull it off, _I don’t know_ , you make me do somethin' stupid, deal?”

“You’re never going to let this go are you?”

“Nope.”

Leaning back in the leather office chair, the designer hid his face in his pale-skinned palms, regretting ever letting the incarnation of chaos into his home.

“Fine, you have a deal, Jonathan...”

* * *

“Nathalie please.”

Looking up from her tablet, the woman they called heartless met eyes with her boss, a desperate look on his face, having come to the woman to beseech her this favour, having found himself trapped in another stupid bet with Stone, if she didn’t know any better she would think the three of them were still children, Gabriel being dragged into the boy’s adventures, with her following along...mostly to laugh at the blond.

“How exactly did you end up in another bet with him again? I would think you would know better after Vegas, _so many waiters…”_

Waving her off he began passing in front of her desk, despair leaking out from him, Duusu’s blessing making that clear to the woman.

With an uncaring face, she leaned back in her chair, placing the tablet beside the mountain of paper on her desk, “I’m sorry Gabriel, there’s nothing I can do, I need to be here to prepare for the summer shoot, you know, the one you _insisted_ had to be on Friday-”

" _I REMEMBER!_ ”

At the man’s fury, a smile spread across the dark-haired woman’s face, Gabriel’s suffering always managing to bring a shred of joy to the empty void where she would have kept her soul, _you know if she was into that kind of thing._

“Nathalie I need a way out of this, the last time I hung out with Jonathan-”

“You had gay thoughts?”

“ _Nathalie!_ ”

With a small chuckle, covering her mouth with her hand, an action that only serves to rub more salt in the wound, “I’m only joking Gabriel, have you tried seeing if Adrien wants to do something?”

At the man’s look of confusion, she sighed before elaborating, “Adrien? Your son? The one who will take any opportunity to spend time with you?”

With a blank look on his face, he turned away, refusing to meet eyes with the woman.

“Nathalie you know why I don’t want to do that, it will only hurt more when-”

“When you take her place, I know, but I think you should reconsider this, he still cares about you Gabriel, you cant create a world where no one will mourn you, it’s not possible, you’ve lived far too long a life to just disappear.”

“Fine, I will ask him-”

* * *

“-Adrien I’ve found myself with some free time this Friday, is there anything you wish to do together?”

With a jerk of his head, the young boy raised his head from his plate, a look of shock on his face at the idea of spending time with his father, before shock turned into confliction.

“ _This Friday?..._ um about that, I wanted to ask y-you something”

‘Is he… _afraid_ of what I have to say?”

Raising a hand to scratch the back of his head, and with a quiet voice, the younger Agreste timidly spoke the words that would haunt the moth holder for weeks to come.

“Can I go to the Jagged Stone concert this Friday with my friends?”

“....pardon?”

_‘No..._ no this can’t be happening, of all things, of all people, you just had to want to go see... _him’_

“Well, my friend Marinette does some designing for him, and as thanks, she was given some VIP passes for his next concert, and I was invited…so can I go?

Clenching his fist, Gabriel looked at Adrien, a blank look on his face, staring at the young boy without a single emotion to be discerned from his face.

“Father...are you ok?”

“Yes, Adrien...I am perfectly ok…”

Standing up from the table, the designer walked towards the door, pausing before leaving the room.

“You may go to the concert Adrien...ask Nathalie to sort out your schedule.”

“Oh! I already did, she said that I could if you were ok with it father.”

“....of course she did.”

* * *

“Eadward, we’ve never really done anything together have we?”

‘Gabriel is really running out of ideas, isn’t he? I should have guessed that I mean some of his Akuma designs...I wonder if he knows I’ve learned his identity yet?’

“I mean how long have we known each other for? 5? _6_ years? Perhaps we could get a drink? Go see a movie? _I don’t know,_ what do kids do nowadays?

‘I mean he hasn’t noticed Adrien is Chat Noir, and it’s not like he’s very good at hiding that ghost cat of his, plus the ring changing colour doesn’t exactly hide what it looks like, I suppose Gabe deserves credit for hiding his miraculous.

“And Nathalie is always insisting I get out of the house more.”

‘I wonder who the ladybug is? Can't be the reporter girl, she’s been seen at the same place as Ladybug, hmmm, Maybe the baker girl?’

“I suppose what I’m saying is, do you have any plans this Friday?”

Looking at the clock on the wall, the bodyguard began to walk away from Gabriel, it was time to pick up Adrien from school.

“ _FINE!_ Be like that!”

* * *

“Master...how exactly does this get you out of your date?”

With a sigh, the moth miraculous holder turned to the god, an annoyed look on his face.

“ _Fine_ , I will explain this _one last time,_ according to our bet, I have to hang out with Jagged after his concert, _but_ if the concert gets interrupted by an Akuma, well then it’s not my fault I can’t do anything with Jagged.”

“ _This plan feels flawed…”_

“Your opinion has been noted and discarded Nooroo, _now_ , **Dark Wings Rise!** ”

At the man’s decree, the Kwami flew into his brooch, white wings bursting from the violet gem, a purple light enveloping the man as the divine blessings of the Kwami of transition made him more than a mear man.

“ _Now then..._ let us see...ah, that works, a desire to grant ones love what they deserve, a goal I can more than approve of, now go my little Akuma, and blacken my chosen’s heart.

With a swipe of his arm, the enchanted familiar flew out of the window, the symbiotic creature seeking out its prey, flying across the city before descending upon the redhead boy, in a flash of magic, merging with his pen.

“Evillustrator, I am Hawkmoth, through the power of the miraculous I have sensed your grief, you wish to be able to give your love everything he could ever want? Then I can restore your power to create all your mind can imagine and in exchange-”

“You want the Miraculous?”

“Don’t interrupt it’s rude, _as I was saying_ , in exchange, you must ensure that the curtains on the Jagged stone concert never rise…”

With an unimpressed look on his face, the artist looked down at the pen in his hand, “that’s all?”

“Yes, that is all I ask in exchange”, replied the villain with a nod

“...ok”

“Excellent” and at the miraculous holder’s words, the metamorphosis began, the artist being wrapped in a wave of purple and black, the villain Evillustrator taking his place.

With the drawing pad stuck to his wrist, the Akuma began to sketch away with his pen, the drawing taking form before him, creating a dazzling ring of gold and green- 

“Evillustrator what are you-”

Before breaking his pen, the purple butterfly fluttering away from the smiling boy, ring still in his hand.

In the villain’s lair, the mask of light faded from Hawkmoth’s face, a look of begrudging respect on his face.

“Well played Evillustrator... _well played”_

And with a sigh, snapped his fingers, releasing his magic from his familiar purifying it of his authority, the massive window closing cutting off the sunlight.

“ **Dark Wings Fall** ”

At his words, Gabriel Agreste returned and Nooroo returned, the Kwami looking the human directly in the eye.

“Not one-word Nooroo... _not one word”_

* * *

“So, couldn’t find anyone to spend time with huh?”

Sitting across from the guitarist, Gabriel Agreste sat on his half of the restaurant booth, arms crossed, glaring at the red-haired waiter walking around, slowly turning to the other man at his question.

“You picked a bad week, that’s all…”

The grin on his face only growing, the celebrity leaned over the table towards the man, “ _sureeee._ ”

“You know, I’m shocked, a restaurant is surprisingly tame for you, I was expecting you to make us break into a zoo or something equally ridiculous.”

“Heh, save it for next time.”

Grumbling under his breath, the designer glared at the amused musician, “next time? Trust me you will not be winning any more bets, Jonathan, and I also refuse to admit you didn’t cheat somehow.”

Leaning back, hand held over his heart in offence, the musician spoke, “and how could I cheat?”

“Well, you…. _wait_.”

* * *

“ **Oh! I already did, she said that I could if you were ok with it father.** ”

* * *

Hand slamming into the table drawing the attention of the restaurant, Gabriel gasped with realisation.

“Nathalie! This was _her_ plan, wasn’t it!”

“Ok, you’ve got me, Nath gave me a ring when I got to the city, said there was an easy win to be had.”

Standing from the booth, Gabriel Agreste walked to the door, cackling guitarist at his heel, slamming the doors open as he stormed out of the building.

“Oh come on, you have to admit we have fun.”

“I admit nothing.”

Grabbing the blond mans hand, the musician stopped the dramatic storm out, the passersby on the street stopping to observe the celebrities.

“What _else_ were you going to do today?”

“........”

“Exactly” 

  
  


Turning around to face the dark-haired man, the designer’s face forced to a look of boredom, a mask that would fool anyone who had not known the man for years, “this won’t be happening again.”

“Is that a bet?”

“..... _typical_.”


End file.
